One More Time With Feeling
by prettypriestess
Summary: A collection of ficbits, drabbles, etc for Kingdom Hearts. "You took time out of looking for us, and fighting the heartless and nobodies to sing in a musical?" Riku demands.
1. Do You Remember Him

Look, I was just going to stick with little fandoms, y'know, The World Ends With You, Final Fantasy III, and then I played KH2 again. Um. I don't really wanna talk about it. -blush-

**Warnings:** Gore? Spoilers for COM? Do we still warn for that?  
**Pairings:** None! It's gen! For chapter one, anyway.  
**Rating:** PG?  
**Notes:** I'm sure someone else has done a better job of writing Sora's mom (and if anyone wants to rec it, that'd be awesome) but here's another "What did she do when Namine's spell wore off?"

---

Keiko Masaki knows she has forgotten something important. It nags at the back of her mind, gnawing at her thoughts, and disrupting her ideas.

It has something to do with Kairi, the nice girl who stops by sometimes just to say hello.

They had something in common, once, Keiko thinks, even if she can't remember what it was or why a single mother would bond with the mayor's daughter.

Keiko is a_ mother,_ she realizes abruptly.

She nearly loses her thumb slicing vegetables. The knife goes in, the knife comes out, she notes with sick fascination. There is blood all over the celery before it occurs to her to bandage her thumb. Keiko washes the wound, ignoring the sting and burn that quickly move toward agonizing as she comes back to Earth.

_I have a son,_ she thinks. _I have a_ son, _and I_ forgot _about him._

Keiko dries her thumb, bloodying a towel, and not caring, then tapes it. It's a trick her mother taught her, instead of stitches use strong tape. She's careful not to get it too tight, and she wonders how she could have forgotten on only a year of her son -- Sora? Yes, _Sora._ God, she forgot his_ name._ -- being gone.


	2. What Happens Under The Sea

**Warnings:** Sarcasm, supension of disbelief. Spoilers for the premise of KH2? Spoilers for Atlantica. Look, if you've ever seen The Little Mermaid, you saw it coming, anyway.  
**Pairings:** Gen, or invisible OT3?  
**Rating:** G.  
**Notes:** Look, he just did it for the Secret ending, okay?

---

"You took time out of looking for us, and fighting the heartless and nobodies to sing in a _musical_?" Riku demands. He flips his tail at Sora, and crosses his arms. He pointedly does not look at Ariel, only meters away and waving enthusiastically at Sora.

Sora scratches the back of his head. Riku is not watching his muscles flex, he is not, he is not, he is. "At the time I was only looking for you and the king, I didn't know about Kairi."

"A _bad_ musical," Riku emphasizes.

"I don't know," Kairi offers. "I kind of like Under the Sea." She flips her tail, too; adjusting to the water. Riku is very obviously half-shark, but Kairi has an elegant tail like Ariel's, in a darker blue like Sora's eyes.

"At least tell me you feel like a total dork now," Riku presses, ignoring Kairi's input.

Sora looks away awkwardly. "Well, we beat Ursula. Again..."

"By singing?" Riku deadpans.

"Yeah," Sora mumbles, at least having the decency to look thoroughly embarrassed now.


	3. There Is No Rum Because It Is Disney

**Warnings:** Suspiciously similar to last chapter? No, that's your imagination.  
**Pairings:** Gen.  
**Rating:** PG. For mentions of booze and getting drunk. D:  
**Notes:** Dude. _Disney_ pirates. _Yeah._

---

"So, while I was being rent asunder from the inside out with darkness, and Kairi was suffering high school and Orgy XIII dungeons _alone,_ you were out having G-rated adventures with pirates?" Riku deadpans.

Sora has largely begun to adjust to Riku's constant criticism of where he spent his time while he was looking for Riku. "We had some rum," Sora protests.

Riku sighs. "That's not what I meant. I'll bet you didn't even get drunk," he adds.

Sora blushes. He digs one foot into the ground. In the background, Kairi giggles. "Um, well. Donald and Goofy said that wouldn't be very responsible," he mutters.


	4. Moving Moving Time To Go

**Warnings:** Spoilers for Twilight Town after you get a trophy from Seifer. (Even in the notes)  
**Pairings:** Sora/Kairi? Axel/Roxas?  
**Rating:** G.  
**Notes:** Honestly, I just wanted to write what it felt like to have that bauble in his hand. I mean, it looked pretty shiny, and then it went skyward and made a keyhole. (And then Kairi got kidnapped. Again.)

---

The bauble from Seifer's trophy lights up like Christmas in Sora's hand, breaking him out of his reverie for a moment.

It feels cool and bright in a way he can't explain, and then it's rising into the air, opening a new path, and Sora is just going through the motions, the keyblade and its every function are just muscle memory now.

He thinks of Axel, and part of him misses Axel's wit, in spite of the rest screaming for wrath and revenge, and Kairi had been _safe._ She had been home, and she had been _safe,_ and nothing he does for her is ever right, is it?

And then, Sora and his friends are off again (because they're always moving, no time for breaks, Sorry, nice meeting you, but we've got to be going now, again, I know, we'll miss you, too...), flying the Gummi ship out to Halloweentown to visit Jack Skellington and his merry crew of macabre men.


	5. Unexpected Princess Is Unexpected

**Warnings:** This is probably too short to be its own chapter.  
**Pairings:** Invisible OT3? Or gen.  
**Rating:** G.  
**Notes:** I can't decide between OT3 and Riku/Sora, but either way, I still love Kairi.

---

Kairi isn't as fast as Riku, or as strong as Sora, and her magic is so far behind theirs, it's a little sad, but she is _unexpected._ Everyone has an eye on Riku, and defenses up against Sora's keyblade, but no one expects the pretty-pink-princess and her oh-isn't-that-cute flowery keyblade to pose a threat.


	6. Casket

**Warnings:** Hollow Bastion spoilers for KH1?  
**Pairings:** Gen.  
**Rating:** G.  
**Notes:** So, replaying KH1 (_again_, you'll totally never guess my favorite game series), I noticed that there is, in fact, one of the little princess cases placed in a much higher, more important-looking place. I was rather creeped out, to be honest. I wondered why Kairi was so special, but I also have mad, irrational Destiny Islands Trio love.

---

**Casket**

**---  
**

They return to Hollow Bastion, and on the way to meet the princesses, Sora looks up where Leon had stood after his fight with Riku, and finally sees the seventh casket--because that's what these things must be, glowing radiantly like the hearts of the princesses--made for keeping the girls alive, but unconscious.

It is above everything on a small walkway, as if to show that Kairi is somehow more important than the other six girls (and Sora feels like she _is_, even though he knows she isn't), as if her heart is more pure, her inner light somehow _brighter_ than that of the other girls.

Sora thinks to himself, what is Riku if not vain, and wonders if it was Riku that set these up, with his love and pride for Kairi. Or Maleficent, with her melodramatic flair. Or Ansem, before he was... swallowed by the darkness? Relieved of his physical form? Whatever.

What matters is now, and _now_ Sora is moving on. He will save Riku, and they will find the king, and everyone will go home and miss the other worlds and adventure, like it was ever so much better than the islands.


	7. Sand and Golden Sun

You'll never guess what _my_ favorite world was. (Actually, still is; KH1's coliseum was _the shit_.)

**Warnings:** Nothing, really. My mad Coliseum love is made embarrassingly obvious.  
**Pairings:** OT3 on the level of canon.  
**Rating:** G.  
**Notes:** Riku totally _would_ love the Coliseum in other circumstances. This is personal canon. 

---

**Sand And Golden Sun**

**---  
**

Sora likes the Coliseum the best. It feels like he should be tired of fighting heartless by now, but there is something about the place that feels fun. Safe. It's familiar, he thinks. The sand and the sun and the sparring sessions with all of his friends... The Coliseum is just like the islands.

Riku would love the place, Sora knows. It would be a chance for him to fight and look cool, and Riku would _love_ the chance to show off in front of a crowd.

Kairi would call them _boys_, like it was an insult, but she would smile as she said it, and watch every match.

She would be too embarrassed to fight, but Sora would bet she could at least take on the Phil Cup solo. She is not strong like Riku and Sora are, but they did grow up together, and she has always been stronger than she looked.


	8. Stand Up

So, it's generally agreed that Ariel wasn't one of the princesses of heart because of the terrain transit and what-not (Seriously, Squeenix, _a wizard did it_. You have a big green witch at your disposal with various unexplained dark powers), and the fact that Atlantica was used in KH2 (alright, maybe they were saving the storyline for later, _whatever_).

Atlantica would have kind of sucked without Ariel's help after she inevitably got kidnapped by Riku and Maleficent, but the fact that she's the only princess who canonically fights _and_ the only princess who didn't make it into the club feels a little... _weird_.

So, instead of bitching more, this is my what-if. I'm booting Snow White for Ariel, because we didn't see her world or anything related to it, and seven is _obviously_ a magic number.

**Warnings:** AU.  
**Pairings:** Gen.  
**Rating:** G. (It's Disney, c'mon!)  
**Notes:** And, for my next trick, Elizabeth Swann meets the other princesses. (I'm serious, after Ariel, it's Elizabeth. She's not pure of heart, but just imagine her talking to the other girls!)

---

**Stand Up**

---

After the battle against Maleficent, Sora finds the princesses gathered in the castle chapel. there is no threat immediately visible, but it doesn't really mean anything in a place like this.

"Sora! Donald! Goofy!" a familiar voice cries.

Sora sees a mop of glaringly bright hair fly at him before he is mauled. He feels a sea-shell bra against his chest, and behind Ariel's non-floaty hair (they aren't under the sea anymore, but it still looks strange for Ariel's hair to obey the laws of gravity) he can see that Cinderella's skirt looks a little flat. He looks down to see that Ariel is wearing one of the under layers as her own skirt because she no longer has a tail.

"Hey," Sora says after a moment. "Nice feet."

Ariel pulls away, spinning to show off her new legs. She loses her balance and sits on the floor for a moment, looking disoriented. Her legs are unshaven, but she hasn't had them for very long, so it's not any weirder than anything else Sora has seen. "You think so?" Ariel asks, pushing off the floor and onto her feet. She stands on her toes, nearly losing her balance again, then starts shifting her weight every which way, testing out her feet all over again.

Aurora giggles. "She's been like this the whole time," she stage whispers to Sora.

"Oh, hush, you," Cinderella tells her with no real heat.

"Just imagine if you had a tail, oh, wouldn't it be wonderful?" Belle adds with a wistful sigh.

"Water everywhere, all the time," Jasmine says. "Like paradise."

"I imagine one could say hello to all the little fishes that swim by, too," Alice mumbles. "Why, I imagine living under water so long would make your skin all pruney, like a long bath!"

"A bath?" Ariel asks.

"It's where you get into the water to get clean. There is also soap, and a washcloth, but we can tell you all about it when there aren't boys in the room," Aurora tells her, casting a glance at Sora, Donald, and Goofy.

"So, I can still swim with legs?" Ariel asks, positively brimming with glee.

Belle begins to explain how she might have to learn all over again, and how she can't breathe the water, and Sora takes that as his cue, carefully sneaking out, Donald and Goofy in tow.

He plans to return shortly with Riku to add to the discussion. Riku has always been the best swimmer on the island, and Kairi could not-drown pretty well, herself.


End file.
